BY WENDY ELLIOTT
Kings County Register
Rockin’ and rollin’ with the Shiretown gang
Get set to rock ’n roll.
The Shiretown Singers will present a little Elvis, The Great Pretenders, a tribute to Queen and a medley of music from the 1950s and the 1960s at their annual concert, this year April 23, 24 and 25
The Shiretown Singers is a four-voice auditioned choir of about 25 members, with supporting other musicians.
For tickets to the rock ’n roll revue, reserve ahead at 678-8306. Tickets may also be available at the door. The show opens at 7:30 p.m. at the New Hope Wesleyan Church on Chester Avenue, Kentville.
Bands in concert
The band Drowning Shakespeare will bring itscross country tour to Berwick April 26.
Featured along with them will be Alice Stops Time, Swing from the Heels, Jagermeistroes, Last of Nine, A Fatal Fascination, Eco-shock and DPS.
Doors at the town hall gym open at 6:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $5; $10 at the door.
Beatles tribute
Hal Bruce from Lawrencetown Beach has just returned from touring the Caribbean and Europe, where he performed 31 shows. His last stop was a two-city visit to Sweden with his one-man show to sold-out crowds of around 1,000 people.
He has been a regular on the world touring circuit for over eight years, and has gained the reputation of the "Best Solo Beatles Entertainer in The World.” He set a world-record by performing all 214 Beatles songs in a non-stop medley.
Hal is back at the Union Street Café in Berwick April 26 at 9 p.m. to do one show only, before he heads to North America's biggest Beatles Festival in Louisville, Kentucky.
On screen
Fundy Film will screen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the award-winning visual marvel adapted from Jean-Dominique Bauby’s best-selling memoir. Creative cinematic technique captures Bauby’s profoundly moving inner life after a stroke paralyzes all but his left eyelid. It will be shown April 27, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., and April 28 at 7 p.m. Tickets ($8) are available 30 min before screening.
www.fundyfilm.ca or 542-5157.
Gala for Ross Creek
The Black and White Gala is returning to Ross Creek April 26, in support of Two Planks and a Passion Theatre.
The evening features live music, film clips and games, an art auction and a spectacular gourmet meal created by Michael Howell of The Tempest.
For information, to buy tickets or to reserve, call 582-3073 or email gm@twoplanks.ca. Tickets are $75 each, or $550 for a table of eight. All funds will support summer theatre outdoors. This summer, there will be two shows in production: Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, and best-selling author Ami McKay’s new play, Jerome: the Historical Spectacle.
Dance classes
No dance experience necessary to take part in the Hairspray dance classes at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts.
For those who loved the recent movie, now’s your chance to learn to move from the pros on the film. Taught by featured actor/ dancers, the program includes four hours of class to learn four different dances from the film, each taught by a cast member.
Cost is $100 if booked before April 29. Classes run April 29 or 30 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Hear Bluegrass
A bluegrass and county music show is set for May 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wolfville Legion on Main St.
Entertainers will be the Dearman Sisters, Gerald and Elsie Wood, Bill Sherman, String Fever, James Brown and Co. Emcee is James Brown. Admission is $5.
In the choir
The 2008 National Youth Choir will be assembling this May for a Maritime tour.
This year's choir, made up of 40 singers ages 18 to 25, will be directed by Julian Wachner of Montreal.
One of the NYC representatives from Nova Scotia is Steam Mill native and well-known tenor Edward Enman. He also acts as accompanist for the Annapolis Valley Honour Choir.
The choir meets May 4 in Truro, and will be performing three concerts in Nova Scotia in Truro, Halifax and Lunenburg.
Lucas in concert
Lucas Porter, Grade 12 student at Horton High School, will take part in a benefit concert shortly for the school’s Safe Grad program.
In addition to Porter on piano, the concert will feature the Horton String Ensemble and Horton Choir. The concert is set for May 7 at 7 p.m.
It will take place at the Performance Centre at Horton. Tickets are available at the school or at Cochrane’s Pharmasave in Wolfville. They cost $10 for adults and $8 for students.
Cape Breton Square set
This year’s fifth annual Cape Breton Square set dance will be May 10 at the Wolfville Lion’s Hall.
Doors open at 7 p.m. for a “how to” lesson with Christy Hodder and Cape Breton fiddler Dara Smith. The dance officially gets under way at 7:45 p.m. and there will be a break in the middle for a mini ceilidh.
Smith will play sets for the square set dances with Skip Holmes from Carrols Corner on guitar. Hodder’s local Fiddlestickers ensemble will also play dance sets.
The last four years were packed, so get your tickets early. All proceeds send the Fiddlestickers to the East Coast Music Awards next year in Corner Brook, Newfoundland with their CD, Pass it On.
Tickets are $8 per person or $35 for large families.
Contact Christy Hodder for the fiddle workshop with Dara Smith during the day at 542 – 3416.
Cadegan included
Twenty-four Nova Scotian artists and craftspeople were honoured as their work became part of the Nova Scotia Art Bank collection.
Tourism, Culture and Heritage deputy minister Kelliann Dean says the program encourages the development of artistic excellence and supports the careers of local artists by purchasing and showcasing their work in Nova Scotia and across Canada.
Established in 1975, the collection has grown to about 1,800 pieces. The new artwork will be on public display at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax until April 27.
Photographer Ernest Cadegan of Port Williams now has one of his pieces, Moving Across the Field, in the collection.
Coming up
April 25 – 26
Nova Swing Band benefit concerts, Al Whittle Theatre, Wolfville 8 p.m.
April 26
Two choirs in concert, Pereaux Baptist Church, 7 p.m.
Until April 27
Heather Lawson exhibition in stone, Harvest Gallery, Wolfville
Until May 17
Don’t Dress for Dinner, CentreStage Theatre, Kentville, 8 p.m.; preview show April 3, matinee May 11 at 2 p.m. Reservations: 678-8040.
Until June 30
Acadia Print Series’ featuring 18th and 19th Century prints from the permanent collection, Acadia Art Gallery, Wolfville
